The Retail Clerks International Union (RCIU) was a North American labor union that represented retail employees.

The RCIU was chartered as the Retail Clerks National Protective Union in 1890 by the American Federation of Labor. It later adopted the name Retail Clerks International Association, and subsequently became the Retail Clerks International Union. In 1979, the Retail Clerks merged with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters to form the United Food and Commercial Workers.

In 1934 the RCIU created a local chapter in Milwaukee, which quickly grew to over 600 members. Soon after the RCIU petitioned the Boston Store to raise employee wages for its men and women and to also officially recognize the union, a move that the store's management refused with the justification that only a few of the department store employees were union members.^[1] The union began striking on November 30, 1934, and the number of picketers soon swelled to over 1,500 picketers, which helped the strike gain national attention.^[1]

Over time the protest began to unravel as some picketers began to act out by assaulting strikebreakers and stink bombing the store, which led to arrests. In response the Boston Store ran full-page ads in local newspapers giving their side of their story, a move that was met with a similar full-page ad by the Federated Trades Commission in the Milwaukee Leader. However as the store's management was unwilling to meet the union's demands, the union lost their ground when most of the union workers returned to their jobs. On January 11, 1935, the strike officially ended with none of the demands met and the store's only concession being merit-based bonuses for the strikers.^[1]

In late 1957 and most of 1958, there was a 13-month-long strike against three department stores in Toledo, Ohio, Lasalle & Koch, Lamson's, and Lion Store, by the Retail Clerks International Association. The strike was settled by a "Statement of Understanding" under which the striking workers were reinstated to their jobs but the union was not recognized.^[2][3]

The Boot and Shoe Workers' Union merged with the Retail Clerks International Union in 1977.^[4]

The senior official was initially the general secretary, later the secretary-treasurer. From 1953, it was the president.^[5]

1891: W. S. Pittman

1893: Ed Mallory

1895: Max Morris

1909: H. J. Conway

1926: Clarence C. Coulter

1947: James Suffridge

1968: James Housewright

1977: William H. Wynn

• Michael Harrington, The Retail Clerks (New York: Wiley, 1962)

• "Timeline". United Food and Commercial Workers. Archived from the original on September 13, 2006. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
• "History of the Retail Clerks". United Food and Commercial Workers. Archived from the original on March 7, 2009. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
• Retail Clerks International Protective Association minutes. 1941-1955. 0.03 cubic ft. (1 folder). Bound volume includes roll calls and minutes for regular and special meetings of the Enumclaw chapter of the RCIPA. At the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.